An image of ultimacy in an age of polarized light. Will you marry me, skywrites the uncle. A pill to induce awe with a side effect of labor. A lateral inward tilting and the aircraft pushes its envelope. A minor innovation in steering outdates a branch of literature. Envelopes push back. The way a wake turns to ice, then vapor, then paper, uniting our analogues in error, intimacy’s highest form. Jet engines are designed to sublimate stray birds. No appears in the corn.

*

The third division of a ruminant’ s stomach is called a psalterium because, when slit open, its folds fall apart like the leaves of a book. The fruit is star-shaped when cut in cross section and is therefore called star fruit. Our people often name an object after the manner in which we destroy it.

*

The viewing public demands an image of itself. The revelation of a telltale trope. The evidence is against us, rubbing. Heat from the right margin reduces the sentence. Light, dry, explosive snow. The pianist is remembered for his influential humming over what is considered a poor rendition. Of radical emotional incapacitation. Of opaque, damp permutation. At what point did you kick away the ladder? In chapter four, where the reader is encouraged to look down from above. Where the author, posing as a question, opens up the floor.

*

I believe there is a question in the back. Yes, thank you. Do you own Hitler’s upper teeth? If you do own Hitler’s upper teeth, and it seems that you do, would you be able to resist the temptation to try them on? If you’re wearing Hitler’s upper teeth right now, and it seems that you are, how does that effect the validity of your answer? What if you write your answer? If you tell me you love me while wearing Hitler’s upper teeth, should I believe you? Is it wrong to be kissed by a person wearing Hitler’s upper teeth? What if the person wearing the teeth is Jewish, a rabbi even? Can we put a dollar figure on the upper teeth of Hitler? Are the upper teeth of every German in some important sense the upper teeth of Hitler? Would it be a good or bad thing for German children to be forced to try on the upper teeth of Hitler? And if it would be a good thing, and I think we can all agree that it would, is that because they would learn that these teeth are somehow exceptional, maybe even supernatural, or because they would realize that Hitler’s upper teeth are composed of a soft pulp core surrounded by a layer of hard dentin coated with enamel—just plain old teeth? Can Hitler’s upper teeth ever be forgiven? And, if so, all at once?

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